Malaysia New-Vehicle Sales Climb 34.5% in January

Malaysia’s new-vehicle sales jumped 34.5% in January compared with year-ago, to 55,066 units, but the Malaysian Automotive Assn. expects the numbers to fall.

New-car deliveries climbed 32.2% to 48,720 units, while new commercial vehicles surged 54.4% to 6,346.

The auto makers’ group says in a statement that January’s growth can be credited to positive consumer sentiment, aggressive sales promotions and a spillover of demand from December.

February volume is expected to see a dip as a result of a shorter work month because of the Chinese New Year holiday and company closures.

Malaysia’s vehicle production climbed 9.4% in January to 56,232 units, with the new-car builds up 9.3% to 50,567 and CV output ahead 10.5% to 5,665.

CIMB Equities Research is predicting the foreign-vehicle segment is poised for growth at the expense of the national makes (Proton and Perodua) this year, The Star newspaper reports.

“A key underlying theme in the auto sector is the ongoing strength of the non-national segment, which has benefited from lower costs associated with the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) supply-chain network and the increasingly discernible taste of Malaysian car buyers for better-quality vehicles and product offerings,” the banking unit says.

“We expect the non-national car segment to reach the 50-50 threshold with the national marques in 2013.”

CIMB says the market share of national brands is at a saturation point, despite some ongoing growth in the multipurpose-vehicle segment.

“Proton and Perodua are carving out a niche in the passenger-MPV segment judging from their 9.7% sales growth in 2012 compared with a 0.8% decline in their passenger-car sales,” it says. “This should continue to be a bright spark in 2013 for national car manufacturers while they address the loss of market share in the passenger-car segment.”

Among the non-national brands, Honda Malaysia, says it has set a sales target of 64,000 units and a 10% share this year after delivering 34,947 vehicles last year.

Managing Director and CEO Yoichiro Ueno says in a statement the long-term target is 100,000 units by 2017.

“We are aggressively building a stronger brand image,” he says. “Honda Malaysia is aligning our focus with Honda Motor’s global strategy and strengthening our sales volume. We will be introducing exciting new models every quarter.”

To support the higher sales volume, Honda’s production capacity at its Melaka factory is being increased to 100,000 units annually and the number of dealerships is being raised to 90 from 61 within three years.

Honda Malaysia also is looking for sales of about 12,000 hybrid vehicles this year.

Ueno tells The Star newspaper hybrid demand will be driven by the end-of-year deadline for tax incentives. Honda’s hybrid models include the Insight, Jazz Hybrid, Civic Hybrid and CR-Z.

Mazda has major expansion plans after growing its annual sales from 991 units in 2008, when it debuted locally, to 6,332 last year.

The auto maker and its local distributor Bermaz are about to launch the third-generation Mazda6 sedan, and The Star says there are plans to assemble the model locally as early as next year.

Nissan distributor Edaran Tan Chong is expecting to top the 34,966 units delivered last year. Executive Director Ang Bon Beng tells the Business Times the company is confident Nissan will continue its stellar performance.

That confidence is matched by analyst OSK Research, which has raised its 2013 sales forecast for Nissan to 57,000 units.